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| - Montenegro's pro-West ruling party could be knocked from power for the first time in three decades after a close election gave a slight edge to opposition camps, results showed on Monday. The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) led by President Milo Djukanovic is still the biggest party after winning just over third of the vote, according to official results from Sunday's election. But it was their worst performance in Montenegro's history. If their main pro-Serb rivals join forces with two other opposition blocs, DPS could be ousted in what would be a political earthquake for the small Adriatic nation of 620,000 people. Newspapers on Monday championed the "historic" results, with headlines announcing that "Freedom has come" and "Power brought down with a pen". Djukanovic, often described as a political chameleon, has led Montenegro since the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s to independence from Serbia, and more recently into NATO and towards the EU. His DPS has never lost an election. But this year the party faced a stiff challenge from an emboldened right-wing and pro-Serb camp that wants closer links with Belgrade and Moscow. Projections by election monitor CeMI gave the three main opposition parties a combined lead of just one seat -- 41 in the 81-member assembly. A period of intense talks are expected to follow, with Djukanovic, in his role as president, ultimately responsible for handing down the first mandate. The results were "good news for democracy" even if the opposition's success is not yet a "done deal", said University of Graz professor Florian Bieber. The three coalitions -- who span the spectrum from "clerical nationalist Serb parties" to a civic-minded liberal camp -- must first forge a working alliance. "The range is so wide that tensions are inevitable and the question is whether a new government would be able to survive these tensions," Bieber told AFP, adding that any small defections could bring DPS back to power. Some voters, such as 67-year-old Mileta Lutovac, feared Montenegro's progress towards joining the EU could be threatened. "I am afraid because I think that what is happening is directly endangering the path Montenegro has taken", she told AFP. Some opposition parties have already raised the prospect of a stop-gap cabinet made up of experts rather then politicians. "An expert government would be able to bypass ideological differences", political analyst Aleksandar Popov told regional television N1. In addition to long-running frustrations at a government accused of corruption and clientelism, analysts attributed DPS's weak showing to a law that sparked intense controversy with the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) and put wind in the sails of Serb nationalist forces. Passed in late 2019, the religion law opened a path for hundreds of SPC-run monasteries in Montenegro to become state property. This ignited huge anti-government protests, led by priests and backed by the pro-Serb opposition who accuse Djukanovic of trying to erase their heritage. While Montenegro declared independence from Serbia in 2006, a third of its population identify as Serb and the SPC remains its largest religious institution, making debates around identity highly sensitive. Speaking at the party's headquarters late on Sunday, Djukanovic underlined that DPS had the "strongest" finish and that the "struggle for the majority is still on". But Zdravko Krivokapic, a professor leading the main pro-Serb alliance, announced triumphantly that "the regime has fallen". Afterwards he paid a visit to Podgorica's main Orthodox church, where he hugged the SPC's top leader in Montenegro, Bishop Amfilohije. Hundreds of supporters gathered outside, waving Serbian flags and setting off fireworks. Djukanovic, who is now serving his second term as president after four stints as premier, will not face election himself until 2023. While he has won plaudits for building links with the West, Djukanovic's critics accuse him of turning the country into a personal fiefdom built on graft and crime links. OSCE election monitors said the poll was transparent but that "widespread abuse of office and state resources gave the ruling party an undue advantage". str-mbs-ssm/tgb
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